The present invention generally relates to a communication system, and more particularly to a communication system for managing data of resources of an image forming unit, such as a copier, a printer, or a facsimile machine, in the communication system.
An image forming device is made up of various component parts including electronic parts, metal parts and plastic parts. When one of the component parts of the image forming device malfunctions or when an operating life of one of the component parts of the image forming device is reached, only that component part can be changed with a new component part, and it is not necessary to change the image forming device with a new image forming device. Thus, resources of the image forming device can be efficiently used.
In conventional image forming devices, it is difficult to efficiently re-use a component part, detached from one image forming device, in another image forming device. Generally, in order to control an operation of the component part in a source image forming device, it is necessary that the source image forming device has a control program suitable for controlling the operation of the component part. Thus, in order to efficiently re-use the component part, detached from the source device, in the new device, it is necessary that the new device has a control program suitable for controlling the operation of the component part. If the control program of the new device does not suit the component part, the operation of the component part cannot be efficiently controlled on the new device.
It is desirable to allow the component part, detached from the source image forming device, to be efficiently re-used for another image forming device, in order to promote environmental protection and resource saving.
Since new image forming devices are increasingly put into practical use at the times of model changes, it is desirable to allow a component part, detached from an image forming device of a previous model, to be efficiently used for a different image forming device of the new model. However, it is likely that a control program of the new model does not suit the component part of the previous model. Thus, there is a problem with the conventional image forming devices in that it is impossible to efficiently re-use the component parts, detached from the previous model, for the new model.